Rhode Island
Finals set in Rhode Island Junior Amateur golf tourney. Here’s who’ll play for the titles.
PAWTUCKET — Olivia Williams will bid for a third consecutive title and three fellow finalists will be in search of their first entering the last day of the 105th Rhode Island Junior Amateur.
Lily Dessel, Jesse Hellring and Brayden Dickinson all hope to join the party at Pawtucket Country Club. Thursday’s semifinals saw the top two seeds advance for the girls and the upsets continue for the boys.
More: More drama at the Rhode Island Junior Amateur quarterfinal match play. Here’s what happened.
Williams rallied past Adriana Eaton, 3 and 2, while Dessel won the first two holes on each side to beat Claire McTaggart, 2 up. Hellring won the 16th and 17th holes to top Rocco Capalbo, 3 and 1, while Dickinson survived the final two holes to outlast Ian Dunham, 1 up.
Eaton won the first two holes and three of the first six to hold a 2-up lead before Williams kicked into gear. She made par to take the seventh and birdie to capture the ninth, pulling level at the turn. Williams won four of five holes between the 12th and 16th to close it out, bracketing that stretch with two more birdies.
“I started to come back toward the end of the front nine and I went up on the beginning of the back nine,” Williams said to the Rhode Island Golf Association. “I was just trying to stay focused, play my game and take one shot at a time.”
Williams could see Eaton again next week at the Women’s Amateur. They’ve played for the state’s biggest prizes in recent years, including a meeting in last year’s final and a matchup in the Junior Amateur semifinals. Both are Interscholastic League stars at La Salle Academy and Moses Brown, respectively.
“She’s very good,” Williams said. “It was a tough match today. We definitely have a lot of fun when we play together.”
Dessel reached the quarterfinals in her 2021 debut at this event and has improved her game steadily since then. She never trailed against McTaggart but couldn’t build more than a 2-up lead against her Barrington High teammate and fellow Rhode Island Country Club member. Dessel won the 18th with a routine par to book a spot in her first final.
“It took me a while today to figure out the speed of the greens,” Dessel said. “It was definitely faster than the past couple of days. Once I got that going, I was kind of steady for the rest of the match.”
Hellring’s bogey was good enough to win the par-4 11th, and he carried a 1-up lead to the 16th after halving six of the previous seven. Two straight pars were enough to slip past Capalbo, the reigning Interscholastic League champion who’s fresh off a strong debut at Prout. Hellring avoided the 18th hole for second time in three matches, playing it only during a 1-up win over Joey Iaciofano in the Round of 16.
“Winning this would be great,” Hellring said. “What you get as well — going to the U.S. Junior [Amateur] would be awesome.”
Dickinson was one of the last players to reach match play as the No. 15 seed and has made the most of his chance. He lost the 16th hole with a bogey to trail late, but that’s a minor inconvenience at this point for the North Kingstown standout. Dickinson was sidelined for the end of spring and beginning of summer after suffering an ankle injury in physical education class at school — he’s just now rounding back into form.
“It really put into perspective how much this game means to me, how much I really just love coming out here and competing with the guys and putting together a good score,” Dickinson said. “It was a tough couple months.”
Hellring and Dickinson will open their finals match at 7:30 a.m. Williams and Dessel will have the tee eight minutes later. Two other matches also will go off in the boys first division and boys 14U — Connor Ahlborg and Conner Rabbitt in the first, Aidan Connell and Raj Mammen in the second.
Boys championship
Jesse Hellring def. Rocco Capalbo, 3 and 1; Brayden Dickinson def. Ian Dunham, 1 up.
Girls championship
Olivia Williams def. Adriana Eaton, 3 and 2; Lily Dessel def. Claire McTaggart, 2 up.
Boys first division
Connor Ahlborg def. Luke Cavanaugh, 3 and 1; Conner Rabbitt def. Zachary Taraian, 2 and 1.
Boys 14U
Aidan Connell def. Mitch McTaggart, 3 and 2; Raj Mammen def. Nico Capalbo, 4 and 3.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On X: @BillKoch25
Rhode Island
A fisherman caught an unusual shark off RI. Now researchers ask if more are moving here.
The young spinner shark was caught off Charlestown. The species normally lives in southern waters.
Spinner Sharks in Florida: Fun Facts You Should Know
Spinner sharks, and the similar blacktip sharks, migrate along Florida’s coast each spring.
Ginny Beagan, Wochit
- A 24-inch spinner shark, a species typically found in waters near Florida, was discovered off the coast of Charlestown, Rhode Island, in September 2024.
- The shark’s partially healed umbilical cord suggests it was very young and raises questions about whether it was born nearby or migrated north.
- Researchers are uncertain if this finding indicates a northward shift in spinner shark nursery habitats due to warming waters or just a rare occurrence.
SOUTH KINGSTOWN – A young shark whose species is normally found in southern waters has raised questions for researchers after its discovery off Charlestown in September of 2024.
The 24-inch spinner shark had a partially healed umbilical cord, indicating that it was less than a year old. Could it have been born nearby? Did the youngster make a long trek north into Rhode Island waters?
Spinner sharks are common in waters off the southeastern United States coast but have rarely been seen near Southern New England, according to Jon Dodd, executive director of the Atlantic Shark Institute in Wakefield.
Joshua Moyer, resident research scientist at the institute and a lecturer at Yale University, said, “According to the literature, most documented nursery habitat for spinners range from the Carolinas to Florida. But here we have a small shark with a partially healed umbilical wound, supporting its designation as a young-of-the-year shark, in Rhode Island.”
Was it a ‘rare stray’ or born nearby?
Still, the researchers say it’s too soon to determine whether the shark was “a rare stray,” or the nursery habitat for spinner sharks is shifting northward because of warming waters caused by climate change. “A single shark does not constitute proof of a nursery,” Dodd said in a press release.
The young shark’s presence in Rhode Island led to the publication of a paper in the Journal of Fish Biology. It was written by Moyer, Dodd and Stephen Kajiura, a professor at Florida Atlantic University and member of the Atlantic Shark Institute’s research advisory board.
“The most fascinating thing about the paper is the size of the spinner shark,” Dodd said. “With a range that focuses on the southern U.S., a mom giving birth here in Rhode Island is unique and opens up a range of questions.”
“Our oceans are changing, known habitats are changing, and what we knew to be the case only 10 years ago may no longer be accurate,” Dodd said. “That is both exciting and disconcerting.”
Most of the world’s oceans have seen a temperature rise, an average rate of 0.14°F per decade from 1901 through 2023, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. However, sea surface temperatures have cooled in some areas, including parts of the North Atlantic, according to the EPA.
The spinner shark was caught by Capt. Carl Granquist on Sept. 1, 2024, while he was fishing on the Estrella Domar “just south” of Charlestown, according to Dodd. Granquist wasn’t sure of the species, but he and his mate, Bryce Biggs, measured it and took video of it before returning it to the water, Dodd said. Granquist sent the video to the Atlantic Shark Institute.
“Less than an hour after he (Granquist) released the shark, I received the video, and I was reallysurprised at the size and potential species of the shark,” Dodd said. “I knew it was one of two species of shark and either one would be a pretty unique find here in Rhode Island waters, particularly at only 24 inches in length.”
While spinner sharks closely resemble blacktip sharks, Dodd, Moyer and Kajiura ultimately concluded it was a spinner shark. In 2020, Dodd was also surprised when he spotted a blacktip shark in Rhode Island waters. They also typically live in southern waters.
Spinner sharks live up to their name
The Florida Museum of Natural History describes spinner sharks as “a slender, gray-bronze shark named for its distinctive aerial ‘spinning’ behavior at the surface.”
“When feeding, spinner sharks will often swim through schools of bait fish, spinning along their longitudinal axis, snapping at fish as they move through the water toward the surface,” the museum says. “When they breach the surface, they can be seen spinning in the air – sometimes as much as 20 feet above the water surface.”
Spinner sharks grow to an average of about 6.4 feet and have been blamed for 16 unprovoked attacks on humans, although none have been fatal, according to the museum’s International Shark Attack File. Their “teeth are adapted for seizing small prey rather than tearing at large prey and therefore usually result in relatively minor injuries,” according to the museum.
Though unusual, it’s not the first time spinner sharks have been detected in Southern New England. The Atlantic Shark Institute managed to tag three spinner sharks in the summer of 2022 and is monitoring their movements since the tags send signals when the sharks pass close to acoustic receivers along the East Coast.
Since they were tagged, those spinner sharks have been detected more than 75 times along the East Coast, according to Kimmie Lavoie, a research analyst at the Atlantic Shark Institute.
“Interestingly, we have had no detections further north than North Carolina,” Dodd said. “These sharks love warmer water and more moderate temperatures. A couple have visited Florida, but their home base has been North Carolina.”
Rhode Island
Grief grips RI as Spencer Lane, mother Christine Conrad Lane are killed in plane crash
‘DCA is a complex airport’: Aviation expert on plane crash
An aviation expert explains why Washington National Airport is “complex” to land at following the fatal airplane crash.
- 16-year-old figure skater Spencer Lane and his mother, Christine Conrad Spencer, were killed in a midair collision at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.
- Christine will be remembered for her creativity, passion for helping animals, and her deep connection to friends and family.
- The Rhode Island skating community, including close friends, is devastated by the tragic loss, with many sharing heartfelt tributes.
BARRINGTON − Devastation spread across the Rhode Island figure-skating community Thursday with word that 16-year-old skater Spencer Lane and his mom, Christine Conrad Lane, 49, were among those who died in Wednesday night’s midair collision at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.
“We’re all just gutted and heartbroken,” Lisa Duffy, a friend and co-worker of Christine Lane at Residential Properties Ltd., told The Providence Journal Thursday afternoon.
“Our skaters are our family and we all feel this terrible loss deeply,” Warwick Figure Skaters, a skating club there, said in a post Thursday on its Facebook page. Spencer “was always a bright light at our rink. He was kind and a friend to so many of his fellow skaters. He was a fiercely determined and fearless skater, always challenging himself. He was in love with the sport from the beginning and it showed.”
Family statement: “You simply could not stop him if he decided he wanted to do something.”
The family was traveling to Washington Thursday afternoon and issued a statement through a friend.
“Spencer can only be described as a force of nature. You simply could not stop him if he decided he wanted to do something. There is no better example of this than his remarkable skating journey, which we are heartbroken to see end too soon,” the statement said. “We are so grateful that his last week was filled with joy and surrounded by his beloved Skating Club of Boston and the U.S. Figure Skating family.”
The statement also said, “Christine exuded creativity throughout her life, using her formal graphic design training as a jumping-off point for seemingly endless creative pursuits across areas such as photography, quilting, knitting, and more. She brought even greater passion to her role as a mother to Spencer and his brother Milo. She was also a lover of animals, and we lost track of how many dogs she helped place in loving adoptive homes.”
“She had a contagious laugh. She was a bright, bright light,” Christine Lane’s friend Duffy remembered her. “Everybody was happy to be in her company.”
And Lane’s son was special. Anyone who was around him felt they were “in the company of a future Olympian,” said Duffy, who added that many were tracking where future Olympics would be held so they could get a jump on buying tickets.
Final words between friends
Lane found friends in all corners of her life, whether it was fostering dogs; knitting and sewing circles; or the skating community. “There’s nobody who ever met her who didn’t like her,” Duffy said. “No matter what it was, she found a way to connect with you.”
Duffy said that she and Lane communicated frequently while the Lanes were in Wichita. “I was watching the nationals on TV and texting her, and saying I was looking for her and her son.”
Just before mother and son began their journey back toward Rhode Island, Duffy texted and asked whether they were still in Kansas or in the air on the way home.
“Wichita, baby!” was the response.
“I blew her a bunch of kisses,” said Duffy.
Later, Duffy sent Lane a TikTok that at least half-joked that today’s fractured world would be better off if people just did more crafts, like knitting and quilting.
She sent that at 8:04 p.m., and expected a funny reply from Lane after her friend landed.
Flight 5342 crashed around 9 p.m.
“Beyond heartbroken”
“I am just beyond heartbroken for her husband and younger son,” said Duffy. “We’re going to rally and help her husband and other son because that’s what she would do for everybody. She just had tons of light and love to share with everybody.”
Rhode Island
R.I. indie pop musician Lainey Dionne on finding inspiration, writing songs for TV, and getting her start in Smithfield – The Boston Globe
“So I kick my leg up high in the air, and they all did the crowd part,” she recalls on this week’s Rhode Island Report podcast.
“To have that connection, that moment, of everybody doing the same thing at once, I was like, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
From there, Dionne went to Berklee College of Music in Boston; has released troves of her own music, including a 2021 full-length debut, “Self Titled;” has used her knack for writing songs for television shows and other artists; and most recently, became a voting member of the Recording Academy for the Grammy’s, as she discusses on the podcast.
“She knows what she wants in her music,” said Dewey Raposo, the Rhode Island PBS producer of “Ocean State Sessions,” a series showcasing local musicians. “I think that really comes across and that’s powerful, I think, for people watching and listening.”
Dionne will be featured in “Ocean State Sessions’ ” latest episode, which airs on Friday at 8 p.m.
The series is now in its fifth season.
“We just sort of try to bring our musicians into, you know, the homes of the people in their community,” Raposo said on the podcast, himself a musician. “It’s just a way to sort of throw some support at them and just sort of all support each other.”
To get the latest episode each week, follow Rhode Island Report podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcasting platforms, or listen in the player above.
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.
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